Final preparations are under way for ProMat 2011 and collocated Automate 2011 on 21-24 March in Chicago's McCormick Place. ProMat exhibits are located in the facility's south hall, and the Automate displays are in the north hall.

The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) of Charlotte, North Carolina organises the biennial ProMat showcase for the materials handling and logistics industries.

For more than 700 ProMat exhibitors, the hours for the 300,000 sqft (27,000 sqm) trade show floor are 10 am to 5 pm for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 10 am to 3 pm on Thursday. Three solution-specific centres on the show floor focus on solutions for manufacturing and assembly, fulfillment and delivery, and information technology.

Jointly, the ProMat and Automate trade shows present keynote addresses on successive days. Tom Ridge, first US secretary of homeland security, speaks at 8:45 am on 21 March, and Ron Diftler of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Marty Linn of General Motors Corp speak about the collaborative and technology-transfer development of Robonaut 2 at 8:45 am on 22 March.

The concurrent ProMat educational conference includes sessions on improving operational productivity and visibility in manufacturing, distribution and in the overall supply chain. The program includes two educational tracks and 80 educational sessions.

The US Department of Commerce designated ProMat 2011 as an official international buyer program event that provides matchmaker services for interested buyers and sellers through an international business centre. Specialists will provide expert counseling.

Primary equipment makers

In alphabetical order, here are some of the ProMat 2011 exhibitors that manufacture forklifts and materials handling equipment with booth numbers and the ProMat-listed physical locations:
American Noblelift Corp (#2072) of Ontario, California
Clark Material Handling Co (#2019) of Lexington, Kentucky
Combilift USA (#626) of Greensboro, North Carolina
Hyster Co (#1503) of Greenville, North Carolina
i-Lift Equipment Ltd (#2236) of Hillsborough, New Jersey
Landoll Corp (#2607) of Marysville, Kansas
Linde Material Handling North America (#641) of Summerville, South Carolina
Mariotti USA (#769) of Des Moines, Iowa
Mobile Industries Inc (#1568b) of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Narrow Aisle Inc (#2364) of Dallas, Texas
Omega Lift Manufacturing Inc (#1876) of Bolton, Ontario, Canada
Raymond Corp (#3219) of Greene, New York
Seegrid Corp (#3936) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Tailift USA Co Inc (#2376) of Ontario, California
Sellick Equipment Ltd (#333) of Harrow, Ontario, Canada
Sino-American Zhejiang UN Forklift (#647) of Hangzhou City, China
Vetex Inc (#4419) of Trenton, New Jersey
Wesley International (#1064) of Scottdale, Georgia
Yale Materials Handling Corp (#1003) of Greenville, North Carolina
Yi-Lift Material Handling Equipment Co Ltd (209) of Changzhou, China
In addition to materials handling equipment and systems, ProMat 2011 has exhibitors showing packaging, containers and shipping equipment; inventory management and controlling technologies; dock and warehouse equipment and supplies; and automatic identification equipment and systems.
Among the exhibitors, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (#977) of Gaithersburg, Maryland will highlight standard-related research and development including the ANSI/ITSDF B56.5 industrial truck safety standard, human/robot collaboration, advanced three-dimensional imaging sensors, the university challenge towards improved forklift safety and a measurement science robot test bed.

Energy storage workshop

Among numerous ProMat-related opportunities, onboard energy storage for forklifts and other mobile equipment will get specialised attention.
An extensive full-day 21 March workshop with a related panel discussion focuses on onboard energy storage performance needs for motive markets including material handling equipment. Workshop attendance is open to ProMat registrants on an available-seat basis. Interested parties can pre-register for the workshop at this website link.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado and the US Department of Energy fuel cell technology program (#4555) of Washington, DC organized the workshop in conjunction with MHIA.
The aim is to gather end users, original equipment manufacturers, distribution center operators and other stakeholders for frank to-the-point discussions about cost, reliability and performance.
Participants include Eric Jensen, director of new technology, research and development for Crown Equipment Corporation of New Bremen, Ohio and Frank Devlin, a segment manager with forklift manufacturer Raymond.
In addition, organisers expect representation from fuel cell system developers such as Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc (#1226) of Billerica, Massachusetts; Plug Power Inc (#3550) of Latham, New York; and Oorja Protonics Inc of Fremont, California.
Similarly organised workshop sessions in room 501 B/C in McCormick Place South begin at 8:45 am and 1:45 pm with the panel discussion slated for 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Make-Your-Vote-Count winners

MHIA has posted videos from Kardex Remstar LLC (#2919) of Westbrook, Maine, Sapient Automation (#4231) of Doylestown, Pennsylvania and Demag Cranes & Components Corporation (#622) of Solon, Ohio as winners in its pre-ProMat Make-Your-Vote-Count popularity contest. Each of the top three of 38 entries also receives a USD100 gift certificate.
The Kardex Remstar video focuses on its Megamat RS vertical carousel, which utilizes 40% less energy than comparable products and has a modular design, interchange carrier and automatic chain tensioning system. Kardex Remstar is a member of the Kardex Group of Zurich, Switzerland.
The Sapient video focuses on the Avenger vertical carousel, which is said to use 45% less energy, operate whisper-quiet, have a double reinforced arm and forging assembly and offer a flexible modular construction. Sapient Automation is a subsidiary of MDCI Automation of Hanover, Maryland.
The Demag video focuses on capabilities in wire rope hoists, cranes, DC chain hoist lines, monorail trolleys and Manulift load attachments. The Ohio site is an operation of the industrial cranes segment of Demag Cranes AG of Düsseldorf, Germany.